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Chinese business leaders are blending General Electric-style leadership principles with traditional Confucianism to create new ways of running their companies, says leadership coach Steve Tappin. Given new confidence by China's booming economy, he adds, China's best CEOs are looking beyond conventional Western ideas to forge new leadership techniques that blend traditional notions of family and hierarchy with cutting-edge management strategies.

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Last year, Zappos became the first major firm to embrace "holacracy" -- the idea that corporate hierarchies can be replaced with democratic, overlapping teams. Paradoxically, however, it is mostly smaller companies with fewer hierarchies that adopt holacracy. "These ideas tend to be introduced by benign-dictator CEOs who are the only thing stopping the firm reverting to a traditional hierarchy," says Jeffrey Pfeffer.

Refusing potentially lucrative offers sometimes is crucial if you want to keep your business strategy on track, writes Mike Figliuolo. When cash is on the line, it's tempting to take on work that doesn't fit your company's goals or talents, he notes; by walking away, you can protect your business, increase demand for your services and send a clear signal about the company's identity to both customers and employees.

A change in language in the People's Bank of China's third-quarter report on monetary policy suggests the central bank considered allowing the yuan to float freely. The report, released ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to Beijing, does not employ the usual language about the yuan's peg to the dollar. Ding Zhijie, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said this means the yuan will get stronger. "The exchange-rate policy in the last year can be viewed as an extraordinary policy for an extraordinary time," he said. "Now, it is time to bring closure to it."

CEOs are powerful, but are they happy? Miserable, according to a new book based on interviews with 150 corporate chiefs. "Even if you succeed in this role, you may ultimately be forced to leave it prematurely," write authors Andrew Cave and Steve Tappin. "There is a high risk that while in the role you will have a limited life outside work and that the job will put tremendous strain on your health, happiness, and close family relationships and friendships."